E3 2002: Japan GCN Price Drop

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First in the US and now in the homeland.

By IGN Staff

Nintendo of Japan announced this morning that it will reduce the price of its next-generation GameCube console in the homeland. The company plans to cut the cost of the machine by one-fifth, a reduction of 5,200 yen, for a new sell price of 18,800 yen, or around $157 US. The new point is more than $40 cheaper than the previous retail cost. The updated price will take effect on June 3, according to Nintendo.

"Lowering the price of a game console doesn't help the hardware makers as much as it used to,'' said Akihide Kinugawa, Daido Life Investment Management Co. He also notes that a price cut is more primarily beneficial to software makes as it attracts more buyers, which results in a larger installed base for them to sell to.

Nintendo also noted that it hopes to ship 14 million GameCubes globally by March 31 of next year.